The California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) has adopted a regulation commonly called the at-berth regulation, the purpose of which is to reduce emissions from diesel auxiliary engines on container ships, passenger ships and refrigerated-cargo ships while berthing at a California Port, which the regulation defines as the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, San Francisco and Hueneme. Other jurisdictions have or are considering adopting similar regulations. The at-berth regulation provides vessel fleet operators visiting regulated ports two options to reduce at-berth emissions from auxiliary engines: (1) turn off auxiliary engines and connect the vessel to some other source of power, most likely grid-based shore power; or (2) use alternative control technique(s) that achieve equivalent emission reductions.
Current options for connecting to alternative power sources are often cumbersome and expensive, and are sometimes not available for a number of reasons, including one or more of the following reasons: (i) ships are not wired for shore power; (ii) shipping companies do not want the expense of converting to shore power; (iii) terminals have no shore power available; or (iv) shore power is over-stressed and is unable to provide for additional demand.
Currently, few or no alternative control techniques are available that achieve equivalent emission reductions. Thus, a need exists for affordable alternatives to shore power connections. Absent such an economical solution, some vessels will be unable to dock at major ports (such as those in California), thus adversely affecting shippers' businesses. In addition, ports subject to the CARB at-berth regulation and/or regulations, or other similar restrictions, will also be adversely affected: not only will they lose business from ships that do not or cannot comply with applicable restrictions or regulations, but also they will be hindered in expanding business by attracting ships to dock that are similarly non-compliant.